Syndicate of Pak cheats busted, 8 held
They allegedly duped Indian of lakhs of rupees by luring them on the pretext of winning lottery in show Kaun Banega Crorepati. The gang was found to be accumulating money in over 130 bank accounts across the country.
The Delhi police’s special cell on Monday claimed to have busted a syndicate of Pakistani cheats, who allegedly duped Indian citizens of lakhs of rupees by luring them on the pretext of winning lottery in Indian TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati.
As many as eight members of the pan- Asia gang have been arrested and the gang was found to be accumulating money in over 130 bank accounts across the country. The accused have been identified as Umer Ali ( 35), Ahmad Hussain ( 24), Rakesh Raut ( 32), Vikas Kumar Sah ( 22), Saroj Kanta Sutar ( 22), Mahendra Kumar Singhal ( 57), Naresh Bansal ( 38) and Ravi Kumar Gupta ( 43).
According to the police, after receiving intelligence inputs suggesting that some Pakistan and Saudi Arabia- based group of cheats were luring Indians over telephone calls into fraudulent lotteries, an investigation was launched.
“We were astonished to find that the racket was being orchestrated from Pakistan and Indian currency was being siphoned off in the hands of the criminals based there,” said the police, adding, “The money accumulated in the fraud may possibly have been diverted through hawala channels across the border to be used for anti- India activities.”
The police added that during investigation it came to light that the accused were luring susceptible Indian citizens into their trap by calling them on behalf of call centres associated with reputed Indian TV show, hosted by Amitabh Bachhan, Kaun Banega Crorepati. “The perpetrators would inform their targets that they had won a lottery, running up to ` 20 lakh to ` 30 lakh, based on the selection of their cellphone number in a draw and that the prize money would be paid to them on the sets of KBC,” said the police, adding, “The accused would then ask their targets, who showed interest, to pay a percentage amount of the lottery amount won for processing the claim.” The police added that once the money was transferred, gang’s Indian associates would withdraw the money and before the victims would realise that they have been cheated, the fraudsters would close the bank accounts and disappear.
The police added that on October 13, raids were conducted at several locations and three main accused, Umer Ali, Rakesh Raut and Ahmad Hussain, were arrested from Delhi.
The police said that Umer Ali’s task was to lure known bank account holders into giving him the operational control of their accounts for a commission per transaction. Ahmad Hussain withdrew the money from various ATMs and banks from branches across Delhi as directed by Umer. Rakesh worked as a delivery boy of credit and debit cards of different banks to another absconding member of the syndicate.
On the trio’s instance, two more accused, Vikas and Saroj, were caught who had come to Delhi for delivering a fresh lot of debit cards to Umer. Three hawala operators, Mahendra, Naresh and Ravi were subsequently apprehended. They routed the cheated money to Pakistan though Saudi Arabia.